Prodos Games: Space Crusade

[YPU]

I agree, those parts that are armoured actually look rather nice. But now they are just "that guy" miniatures. 

Exactly, the executions is great, the concept is terrible.

[Knightofspades]

"That guy miniatures"

A great expression!

I had a good laugh on face book about these miniatures.
I think its work they do for another company or guy right?
After all they have been very good at having realistic armour for their soldier women before.

[Cherno]

Personally, I think the miniatures are ridiculous but if they think they'll sell more games with them...

One thing that baffles me is that in my opinion, Space Crusade is a horribly unbalanced game, which is a shame because it has great components and a great premise. When I actually played it, however, I quickly found out that if played as a straight players vs. evil overlord game, the way the melee combat works is that the Space Marines get slaughtered very quickly by lowly Orcs and the Sergeants only survive because they have six HP and maybe the glove/powersword combo.

Edit: It looks like it is Space Crusade in name only, as the military tactics theme of the original, with squads of Marines led by sergeants is abandoned in favor of a more character/hero approach akin to Hero Quest. Also, while the game board seems to have a square grid, there also seem to be 3D scenery like low cardboard walls to use as cover.

[Tactalvanic]

Oh, maybe I should not have looked whilst at work  

Well what armour there is, is well done, the rest of the unarmoured parts are indeed, er, well done but, make for large area of soft target?

Maybe they can do a armour plate pack to stick more on?

Like  a dressup upgrade kit?

Will give this a miss I think

[tnjrp]

Maybe if you paint them like they are wearing skin suits under that armour?

Well, maybe I won't help all that much

[pocoloco]

I could understand occasional almost nude succubi-like minis etc, and fur/mail bikini clad female warriors make sense in a Red Sonja way but these cross the line, how many dads will play with naked female minis with their daughters or sons for example?

These minis lack the clothing and the makers perhaps lack proper companionship of opposite/same sex if these kind minis are needed in their world.

/Rant mode off.

[Stu]

First, good sculpting, second, shite concept - WTF were they thinking? Battle of the Space Strippers?

[Elbows]

I fully support any manufacturer to produce whatever they want.  That being said, I also fully support the consumer market to ignore the product and make the game a failure.  I've no interest in the game anyway, and my guess it is will bin itself spectacularly.

But...the American in me says "do whatever you want, but accept the results". 

[Westfalia Chris]

Did you notice that the logo actually reads "Space Crusaders", not "Space Crusade" in the figure pictures? I wonder what's up with that.

That said, the gratuitous nudity is quite irritating. A shame, since I see potential in some of those bikes to use as base models for the Psycho Bikers from "The Black Hole", but I don't know if I could man up  enough to put a box of these on the counter and not be shamefully embarrassed by it.  

[Torben]

Well, they didn't go KS route with that then.

Apart from their last KS blowing up in their hands, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have made it through the Kickstarter censorship due to gratious nudity

[mcfonz]

Utter utter crap of the highest order.

Crap concept, crap execution, crap sculpting. Could be the end of Prodos as we know them.

[Wachaza]

Oh dear.

Shameless rip off of classic much loved title.

Horrible boob miniatures.

Hear that scraping? They're through the bottom of the barrel now.

They've done some nice miniatures for AVP and Warzone but these are utterly terrible.

[Elbows]

I had seen the box contents (badum-ching) but then clicked on the other pictures on Facebook...and they only get worse!     I know someone who'll probably buy this up immediately which makes me chuckle a bit.

But did you guys see the lady-dreadnought?     Naked women strapped to the front of a dreadnought. Seems legit.  Again, I think it's all silly but...go nuts.  Make your decision and abide by the consequences.

[Cherno]

You've noticed that the logo actually reads "Space Crusaders", not "Space Crusade" in the figure pictures? I wonder what's up with that.
[...]

Huh? Strange. The box cover just says "Space (C)rusade".

If they would acknowledge the ridiculousness of the boobtastic miniatures (I won't even get started on that Dreadnaught   ) and play it as a over-the-top take/parody on the classic MB/GW game, no one would complain much. The KS for Toughest Girls of the Galaxy was in the same vein (not as silly maybe, but the direction was the same) and was pretty successful, because just going by the name of it, everybody knew what they were in for. With Space Crusade, they seem to play it straight which adds to the controversy

Fun fact: The German version of the original Space Crusade, called Star Quest (probably to capitalize on the wildly successful Hero Quest game in that country) was heavily bowdlerised; First of all, there are no Space Marine Chapters, but a military organisation called the "Galaxy Safe Guard" (GSG).

Ultramarines = GSG-19 (Likely a homage to the famous German counter-terrorism unit GSG-9).
Blood Angels = GSG "Tiger"
Imperial Fists = GSG "Musketier" (Musketeer)

Chaos troops are called "Robotlings", regardless if they're Gridlings (Gretchins) or Dreadnoughts.

Genestealers become "Klone" (Clones).


The description of the GSG's weaponry mentions the highly ethical principle behind their equipment (translation):

[Even the hardest battle is fought without meaning to kill. Only the weapon or technique that is just barely effective enough to neutralize the current attack on human life or human rights is employed.

Consequentally, all GSG weapons are non-lethal, but nevertheless extremely effective.

Even Bionic arms are available so humans have a fair fighting chance against the Robotlings' mechanical brawn/force.]

The Assault Cannon is now the "Zero-Time-Gun". It slows down the target's perception of time that it becomes effectively unable to act.

The Missile Launcher is now the "Holo-Launcher". It creates a perfectly lifelike hologram image of the target's surroundings, causing the target to fight against the images until it's circuitry is worn out completely. (Pure genius!)

The Plasma Gun is now the "Black-Hole-Blaster". It creates a local black hole that sucks in the target and sends it to a parallel dimension.

The Melta-Bomb is now a literal Melting Grenade that fuses all metal parts of a Robotling's equipment to each other: Weapons are rendered useless and the metallic soles of their boots are fused to the ground

Somewhere in the manual it's also mentioned that a Robotling's will to fight/Agressiveness can be reduced to the point of it becoming completey disinterested and docile. This might be from the Dreadnought expansion.

Just try to imagine what it means if the GSG commander reports a sector cleared after the missions:

dozens of enemy troops still "alive" (they're Robots, after all) on the vessel, with some melted with their boots to the floor, some moving at 10.000 times slower speed... And then god beware if the inhabitants of that parallel dimension find out who the hell keeps sending dozens of Robotlings every week straight to their front lawns!

[Gibby]

What an embarassing set of figures. For every effort like Bad Squiddo games who make realistic and sensible female warrior figures, you get ten companies cranking out these pieces of shit. Like I said, I find their existence in the hobby an embarassment.